Sister is a 2018 animated short film (eight minutes) by Siqi Song.
In the short, a Chinese man remembers his little sister. He relates how she cried a lot as a baby, how she stole his toys, how they'd get into fights, and how they would do silly things together, like the time that the boy lost his tooth and the two of them tried to "grow" new teeth by planting one of his baby teeth in a pot and watering it.
But all is not as it seems.
This film was made by a Chinese woman and is in Chinese, but was actually made at the California Institute of Arts.
Tropes:
- Annoying Younger Sibling: When the boy's sister was a toddler she'd steal his toys. Later, she would tell white lies that got him into trouble and punished.
- Bilingual Bonus: There are certain points that are better understood by speakers of Chinese. The actual Chinese title translates directly into English as "Younger Sister". And there is a pun that only speakers of Chinese will get: the Chinese words for "tooth" and "sprout" are homonyms, so there's a bit of visual humor in the scene where the two of them grow a tooth tree.
- Foreshadowing:
- Siqi Song said in an interview
that certain scenes are metaphors of the ending. The scene where the boy yanks on the stump of his baby sister's umbilical cord symbolizes the abortion itself. The scene where the sister tells a lie and then her nose grows Pinocchio-style symbolizes how the whole story is a lie. - Additionally, there's a scene after the two kids have grown the tooth tree, that briefly shows the sister as a fetus in the womb, followed by the parents arguing. This is soon followed by The Reveal.
- Siqi Song said in an interview
- Imagine Spot:
- The cartoon has the brother imagining his sister growing to an enormous size, following by him yanking on her umbilical cord which results in her deflating like a balloon back to her real size. Later the two of them try to grow a tooth tree, and a tree actually sprouts and grows teeth.
- The ending reveals that most of the cartoon is an imagine spot, as the man never had a sister and was in fact an only child.
- Once More, with Clarity: The man reveals that actually, his sister "was never born". That's followed by all the things that they did together, like watch TV or try to grow a tooth tree, shown again but with the boy doing them alone.
- Pinocchio Nose: The siblings are watching what appears to be a Chinese "Pinocchio" cartoon when the sister breaks a bowl. She blames it on her brother, who gets punished. Afterwards he scowls at her and her nose grows Pinocchio-style.
- Population Control: China's "One Child Policy" in which the Chinese government officially banned families from having more than one child. As the narrator reveals, his mother had a pregnancy, one which would have resulted in a younger sister, aborted due to the policy.
- The Reveal: Although it's pretty easy to see coming. The man never had a sister and most of the cartoon is an extended Imagine Spot. His mother was compelled to have an abortion due to China's one-child policy.
- Splash of Color: Almost all of the film is in black and white, but the sister has a little pink bow on her head throughout, even when she's an infant.
- Stop Motion: A stop motion short made with felt dolls.
- Tertiary Sexual Characteristics: All the characters have pretty limited faces (basically eye dots and nose and mouth shapes on felt) so the little sister has a pink bow to mark her out as feminine.
- Time Skip: After starting with the birth of the boy's little sister in 1991, the short skips ahead to 1995 and 1996 as they grow up together.
